LOST Rewatch: Abandoned

Credit: tle1lost.wordpress.com

Today's episode is entitled "Abandoned" and the focal point of the episode is Shannon. Shannon is trying to recover from the (recent in Island-time) death of her brother Boone (for us it happened all the way back at the end of Season 1). Shannon has also been struggling with some weird visions of Walt that she keeps seeing in the jungle, where the boy is dripping wet and speaking gibberish. (Yeah . . . he's actually speaking backwards. I remember when the episodes first aired back in 2005 and I was quickly on the Web sites and podcasts trying to figure it all out.

So, for your edification, I can tell you that in the first vision of Walt, he supposed said Don't push the button. The button is bad. And in the second instance of Shannon seeing Walt, he said They are coming. They are very close.)

Who is coming? Well, if you remember from ". . . And Found" the Tailies who survived the separation and crash of the back portion of Flight 815 have been surviving on the other side of the Island, have been harassed daily by the mysterious Others, and have now linked up with Sawyer, Jin, and Michael who survived the Raft's destruction. All of these guys are traversing the Island to get to the Beach and the Caves to live a more secure life of fruit, boar, fresh water, Hatch button-pushing, and lack of Other attacking.

But this journey has its problems. To keep away from the Others in the Jungle, Ana Lucia and Eko are leading Bernard, Cindy, Libby, and the Raftaways around the Island's circumference. This will take longer, but be safer. Unfortunately, the bullet wound that Sawyer suffered when the Others stole Walt from the raft at the end of season 1 has been steadily weakening him. (That was six episodes ago!) So, he is slowing down the journey and eventually passes out.

Ana Lucia is all for leaving him, but Michael and Jin won't do it and neither will Eko. They all build a sling from bamboo and vines and begin carrying Sawyer. And they are forced to go inland through the jungle to get the journey completed faster. While they are struggling to get the unconscious Sawyer up a small 10-foot cliff face, they discover that Cindy the stewardess has disappeared. The Others must have somehow magically taken her!

Meanwhile, Shannon is trying to convince Sayid that her visions of Walt aren't insane. And her flashbacks are all about when her dad (and Boone's step-dad) died. (He was the driver of the car that nearly killed Jack's almost-paralyzed wife Sarah back in Season 1.) He's only interested in solidifying his burgeoning relationship with her, but she is convinced that he doesn't respect her and thinks she is a child in need of help. This is reinforced by the Flashback's story of how Shannon got her inheritance money cut off from her by Boone's mom and how her plans for an internship in New York were derailed. So Shannon started falling into a pattern of getting Boone to bail her ourt of problems, which we saw happening in the first season.

In the end, both Shannon and Sayid see a dripping wet Walt apparition in the jungle and follow it. As the rain pours down and sounds get confusing, Shannon, unfortunately, intersects with a trigger-happy and scared Ana Lucia. She assumes that Shannon is an Other and fires a shot. Shannon is wounded in the belly and collapses into the arms of Sayid who caught up to Shannon a moment too late. Michael and Jin (and the other Tailies look on in shock as Shannon slowly bleeds . . .

. . . to death?

We'll see in the next episode!